"Footnotes are real."

Starting from the introductory quotes, its pretty clear that Crichton's position is one of a sort of smug scrutiny of the scientific process, but no doubt only so far as it serves his case. "There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact." - And I smugly agree with this position, largely, as is evidenced by some of my previous posts perhaps; I love and trust the pursuit of knowledge but to me the body scientifique is full of conjecture and fascinating science fiction. Another element of the front matter hitched me - in his disclaimer about yadda yadda, these characters are fictional, he ends with "Footnotes are real." No bs, this is a legitimation project, of course.
And on page 43 (at least its page 43 in my book, but I may have a different version?) we get our first taste of footnote legitimation - this science fiction book is making an argument about a real world issue and citing sources, and providing us with characters who are bent on proving the author's point.
*" "The reality," he said, "is that Iceland the first half of the twentieth century was warmer than the second half, as in Greenland." The reality is that in Iceland..."" etc. This italicized word, reality, repeatedly meant to drive home the legitimation of doubt about Global Warming. And it includes a statement (which sounds absolutely ridiculous to me, from what I know of ... well, the globe...) that Iceland has a particular pattern that should be regarded as independent of global phenomena... what? And then there are the graphs starting on page 83, where the scientists repeatedly say something to the effect of, "oh, even in the face of evidence you still hold your position that Global Warming is real? Good. We need blind faith to win." That's cute, Crichton. Especially since the book did *not* include any of the scientific 'conjecture' which has served to explain the phenomena on those graphs. I've heard a lot of the arguments that explain those trends - perhaps because my dad is a lobbyist for alternate energy and owns an LLC where he is a consultant for solar paneling, in conference with Xcel and electrician unions and so forth.
The tone of this story is definitely some sort of action adventure. The global warming scandal is also a war, a dramatic day in court, a conspiracy (and my dad would entirely agree). The characters are in a life and death endeavor where money is being pushed around as nefariously as if this were a global illegal drug market. A la James Bond, the women are sexualized even when in positions of power and the men are in the most predominant positions of power - the prestigious positions. Everyone has a mistress or three and noncommital sexual behavior, the sexiness of being a lawyer on one side of a war in swaying public opinion (I mean, basically Crichton is sexy-fying his own life, right?)
But he is so very lawyer-like - doing the exact sort of legitimating that he is seems dubious of, but of course he knows he's doing it because that is what being a lawyer is all about - on page 90, where he shamelessly lists all of the great legitimators who may argue against Global Warming - even nobel prize winners, imagine that. And who is most trustworthy, The UN? (page 85) or a Nobel Prize winner and an MIT professor? He certainly didn't go out of his way to make the case FOR Global Warming, here. The case for is the feeble, non-scientist Evans saying "Well of course I still believe" in the face of the body scientifique saying, "in spite of all of this reason to doubt Global Warming, we need you little people to believe." So he is turning an issue where the majority of scientists in real life agree into a mockery, and without providing the side of the defense of Global Warming, he is surely a bit convincing - he makes us feel, through his characters, as though there really isn't much of a valid defense against the great doubt. The lawyers in defense of global warming aren't doing a very good job but Crichton is making his one sided case pretty well. Evans, the whole defense, are the foil, the blind faith believers, but the footnotes don't lie (footnotes which are references to scientific papers, so trust Crichton's interpretation of the science.)